Chapter 16
A Community of Tennessee Writers, Readers & Passersby

Spring Theory

An urban farmer reconsiders the experiment

May 13, 2014 If measured on a scale—not from one to ten, but an actual scale—the fruits of my gardening labor could be tallied in ounces, not pounds. There was that handful of blueberries we harvested one year. And that sublime ear of corn the next. There has been the occasional arugula salad and the intermittent tomato, but for the most part there has been drought, excessive shade, blight, rot, and cussing.

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Good Girl, Bad Girl

Writers grapple with their most memorable foibles in the new essay collection, Southern Sin

May 12, 2014 Southern Sin: True Stories of the Sultry South and Women Behaving Badly, an essay collection edited by Lee Gutkind and Beth Ann Fennelly, is about blowing it, betraying loved ones, sleeping with the wrong people, breaking the law, and, most importantly, having the nerve to fess up. In the South, this is not as easy as it may seem.

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“Dreaming of Picasso”

May 9, 2014 Poet-photographer Lola White has published poems in a variety of literary magazines since 1977, and her photographs have been shown in a number of galleries. During the 1990s she conducted a poetry program for Nashville’s Talking Library, presenting such diverse writers as Philip Levine, Ann Patchett, Jeff Hardin, and Bill Brown. White has worked as a department-store wrapper, teacher, jewelry maker, folksinger, and bookseller. She lives and works in Nashville, Tennessee.

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This Is Not an Anthropology Lesson

Tupelo Honey Cafe pays delicious tribute to food—and life—in the Mountain South

May 8, 2014 Tupelo Honey Cafe made a name for itself in Asheville, North Carolina, by bringing a spirit of adventure to a range of traditional Appalachian recipes. Now that Tupelo Honey has expanded throughout the Mountain South—including several Tennessee locations—head chef Brian Sonoskus has partnered with writer Elizabeth Sims to create a collection of recipes and stories that highlight regional dishes. Sonoskus will sign copies of Tupelo Honey Cafe at Union Ave. Books in Knoxville on May 16, 2014, at 5 p.m.

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Capturing Enigma

Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright Doug Wright debuts his new drama at the Ingram New Works Festival in Nashville

May 7, 2014 Celebrated playwright Doug Wright, best known for I Am My Own Wife, which won both a Tony Award for Best Play and the Pulitzer Prize, will debut his latest play, Posterity, at the Ingram New Works Festival, which runs May 7-17, 2014, at Tennessee Repertory Theatre in Nashville. In this new play, Wright offers a thoughtful look at a pair of remarkable artists concerned with their own legacies. Posterity will be performed May 15-17, 2014, at 7 p.m.

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Football and Felony in Beantown

Ace Atkins’s third Spenser mystery takes Robert B. Parker’s legendary detective into the world of professional football

May 5, 2914 In 2011, the Robert Parker estate tapped Ace Atkins to continue the late writer’s beloved series of thrillers. With Cheap Shot, his third Spenser novel, Atkins proves again that he is indeed up to the challenge. Atkins will appear at The Booksellers at Laurelwood in Memphis on May 15, 2014, at 7 p.m.

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